From the ‘Things-To-Watch-For’ file: The Chicago Sun-Times (Oct. 28) writes about author Phillip Pullman appearing at the Chicago Humanities Festival. A movie of the first book of Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, The Golden Compass, is coming out in December. Here’s what to check out in the flick (starring Nicole Kidman, among others): We know the very butch armored atheist polar bears are there as well as the very cool ‘daemons’ (look it up), but are the two sad and lovely gay angels still there?
From the ‘Too-Stupid-For-Words’ file, The Chicago Tribune (Oct. 28) has a completely fatuous opinion piece by one Stephen Benzkofer that manages to be homophobic, sentimental and flap-jawed blather all at once. The writer opines that Harry Potter, that is, the character invented by J.K. Rowling, does not belong to J.K. Rowling. Benzkofer says, instead, all the Harry Potter inhabitants belong to the children who have read the novels. Hence, Albus Dumbledore isn’t gay (though Rowling said he was) because those kids wouldn’t want it to be. Oh, really? Ever hear of intellectual property, Ben? Didn’t think so. You’re probably not aware of The New York Times (Oct.29) article whose author actually went back and found many hints, both subtle and blatant, that Dumbledore is, in fact, gay (for example, gossip columnist Rita Skeeter saying he was not ‘exactly broad-minded’).
From the ‘We-Are-Not-Family’ file, The Chicago Tribune (Oct. 28) reports that ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act), which forbids workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and which is moving through the House, is being protested not just by conservatives, but by transgendered folk who are not covered in the bill. This kerfuffle has pitted old-time gay support activists against each other; for instance, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Barney Frank vs. Illinois’ own Rick Garcia. The non-inclusive side says America is beginning to accept gay rights but that transgender issues are still fuzzy/iffy for most people.
Lance Bass has a book, called Out of Sync, and he is alleged to be the author of it. It says so in The New York Times (Oct. 21). Talks about coming out—sort of by accident. Says his family, Southern Baptists, didn’t all know he was gay. Says he feels ‘betrayed’ by Justin Timberlake (Because he didn’t come out?). Says he never, never, never fooled around with his inventor, Lou Pearlman (who founded *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys and who more than liked those teenagers and who is sitting in jail for embezzlement). Says he doesn’t know how to deal with his fan-boys (that is, the backstage boys). You know, unless you have a fixation on teen fanzines (those adolescent knockoffs of People Magazine), you could probably skip this one.